Austin bombings inspire solidarity, not terror

Austin bombings inspire solidarity, not terror

1of3FBI agents investigate Sunday's deadly explosion in Austin. This blast that was triggered by a tripwire demonstrated what police said was a "higher level of sophistication" than the package bombs used in the previous attacks.Photo: Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press

As it turned out on Sunday evening, two young men in their early 20’s happened to be either riding or walking their bicycles along a quiet trail in an upscale southwest Austin neighborhood. They apparently didn’t see the thin wire, something like a fishing line, tied to a metal yard sign and stretched across their path. They might not have even noticed when one of them unwittingly hit the tripwire on a sophisticated bomb.

Neighbors heard what sounded like a loud transformer explosion. Police who quickly swarmed the area later confirmed what everyone suspected: The blast that injured those two young men was the bloody work of a serial bomber who had already killed two people and hurt two others. Early Tuesday morning, another explosive device hidden in a package bound for Austin detonated in a central Texas FedEx facility, but fortunately, it caused only minor injuries.

As a result of these bombings, Dray Mason, a high school senior who was just accepted into the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas, will never achieve his ambition to become a neurosurgeon. And Anthony House, a 39 year-old founder of his own money management business, won’t have the joy of watching his eight-year-old daughter grow up.

An attack like this on any American is an attack on all of us. An attack like this on any Texan makes all Texans’ blood boil. Austin has a special place in our hearts, so it’s with special pride that we express our solidarity with the people of our capital city.

Terrorists hope to inspire terror, but that amoral goal is something these bombings have failed to accomplish. Austin has reacted to these frightening events with understandable anxiety, but also admirable courage and restraint.

Nobody in any position of authority has jumped to conclusions. Law enforcement officials did not rule out the possibility that the first three bombings were hate crimes, because all of the victims in those cases were black or Hispanic. Now the targets seem more random than initially suspected, proving that speculating about a motive for these senseless acts of violence is ill-advised.

Strange as it seems today, there was a time in our country’s recent history when bombings like these were commonplace. The United States experienced more than 2,500 domestic bombings during just 18 months in 1971 and 1972, almost five every day. Radical groups with names like the Weather Underground and the New World Liberation Front set off so many makeshift explosive devices people barely paid attention. Bryan Burrough, a native Texan journalist who wrote a book about this spasm of violence, recalls that Americans became so blasé about domestic terrorism, a crowd of cinema patrons refused to evacuate after a small bomb detonated in a New York movie theater.

That complacency cannot and will not happen again, certainly not in Texas. Houston’s police chief, who came to our city from Austin, has dispatched some of his department’s resources to help investigate these acts of terror. We can only hope local and federal law enforcement authorities quickly bring this series of bombings to an end.

In the meantime, we’re proud that our neighbors in Austin are keeping their customary cool, showing the world how our capital city keeps going about its business during a difficult time.